Picnic Fare

We decided kind of spur-of-the-moment yesterday to take a picnic to Central Park. The weather was absolutely perfect and the long weekend meant the city was nearly empty of people, so we were looking for great, grassy expanse for our nearly-3-year-old to run around. Since it was a spontaneous decision, I took a stab at making a carry-along lunch from what we had in the fridge, and I didn't do too badly: beet with salt and olive oil, edamame, turkey and avocado wraps, cheese, crackers and brownies that I whipped up early in the morning.

More From Woman's Day

The brownies are easy, made from a recipe in one of my favorite chocolate cookbooks, BitterSweet by Alice Medrich. You put 10 Tbsp butter, cut up, in a heatproof bowl with 1½ cups sugar, ¾ cup plus 2 Tbsp cocoa powder and ¼ tsp salt. Melt that over a pan full of simmering water, then stir and cook until it's hot enough that you want to pull your finger away if you touch it. Let it cool to warm, then stir in ½ tsp vanilla and 2 eggs, 1 at a time, stirring briskly after each addition. Stir in ½ cup flour and then stir 40 quick strokes. Bake in a greased 8-in. square pan (I used 9-in. because that's what I have) in a 325 degree oven for 20 to 25 minutes. They're really dense, moist, crackly brownies. I ate 2.

Had I planned ahead a little more (and been making for less picky people), I would've made pan bagnat. A sandwich that's meant to be made in advance, pan bagnat means bathed bread, which soaks up the olive oil or dressing while it waits to be eaten. Pasta salad is a big picnic favorite around here; I use curly pasta and add antipasto-type ingredients like roasted red peppers, cubes of fontina and marinated artichoke hearts. This salad uses fresh vegetables and a lemon-dill dressing. I've also included below loaded cookies, a chickpea salad and a slideshow of kid-approved sandwiches. Anything picnic is also a pretty good idea for a packed lunch, particularly if you have some way to keep things cold (the food safety issues confound me, so I just always try to keep everything relatively cold).